Lawrence Lumber Company Inc. - Miller Publishing Corporation

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Page 20 RAM Forest Products, Inc Manufacturers and Exporters of Quality Pennsylvania Hardwoods producing 25,000,000 BF annually 1,000,000’ Kiln capacity Specializing in Hard Maple • Cherry • Soft Maple • Red Oak • Ash Hardwood Lumber and Logs Export Packaging and Container Loading Band Sawn Lumber at Shinglehouse, Pennsylvania (U.S.A.) location. Lumber Sales - Mike Tarbell - Rus Gustin Phone: 814-697-7185 FAX: 814-697-7190 Log Sales - Bob Mallery Phone: 814-697-6576 FAX: 814-697-6637 Mailing Address: 1716 Honeoye Rd. Shinglehouse, Pa. 16748-9739 E-Mail: ramsales@frontiernet.net ARGO FINE IMPORTS - (är’go) 1. Importers of Hardwood plywoood 2. Consistent high Quality panels 3. Experienced and knowledgeable sales staff. 4. Maintain the Highest Integrity standards in the industry. SALES CONTACTS: • Don MacMaster, President • Dick Olano • Todd Wager • Robert MacMaster • Joe Manguno • Kenny MacMaster • Buz Clanton • Bob Keep • Ryan MacMaster • Chris Paras www.argofineimports.com PRODUCTS: Meranti - Indonesian, Malaysian, Chinese Melapi - Indonesian Florecore Extreme Underlayment Baromalli - South Africa Faveira- Brazil Red Oak - Indonesian, Chinese, UV Birch Cabinet Select - Chinese Birch- Russian, Chinese Obeche - China Poplar - China Okoume - Chinese Birch / Okoume - Chinese CONTACT US AT: Phone: 504-828-0943 Fax: 504-828-0946 3045 Ridgelake Dr. Metairie, LA 70002 E-mail to: argo@argofineimports.com Sande - Ecuador Hardboard - Brazil Phenolic Film Face Concrete Panels - Chinese Particleboard - Mexico Keruing/Kapur - Indonesian Fir Finger Joint Lumber core– Chinese, Brazil Container Flooring - Indonesian Framestock - Chinese, Indonesian,Brazil Radiata Pine - Chile Elliottis Pine - Brazil INTERNATIONAL WOOD PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON SCENE - Continued from page 19 would also have provided broader use of sivicultural tools like designation by description and designation by prescription, expansion of the good neighbor policy, and a continuation of the prohibition on Clean Water Act permits for forest roads. Overall the CR will fund the government at a spending level of $1.047 trillion, about $8 billion above FY12 levels, which equates to a 6 percent increase to agency budgets. • McCLENDON - Continued from page 3 Let's look at a recent study commissioned by the National Retail Federation on the Impact of Imports from China on U.S. Employment. It found every U.S. state has a net positive number of jobs related to imports from China, meaning trade with China adds jobs, not the reverse. It also found that U.S. consumers enjoy price levels that are 1.4 percent lower thanks to imports from China. The study concludes that nearly 1 million U.S. jobs benefit from imports from China alone. In the wood industry, many U.S. consuming industries use products that were originally exported from the U.S. for value-added manufacturing and then imported for final processing or distribution. Flooring, kitchen cabinets and furniture are a few of the product industries benefiting from free trade. U.S. wood exporters and manufacturers will be harmed by this legislation as well as importers. Others will also be impacted should this legislation move forward. Overseas trade provides jobs to people directly associated with moving the imports along the U.S. supply chain. Dockworkers, customs agents, truckers, rail workers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers handling imports will experience diminished revenue. The "Movement Act 2009" deserves our serious scrutiny and unified work by the entire U.S. wood products industry. After all, the Trojan Horse was made of wood. • FORECASTS - Spilker Continued from page 4 donʼt see that easing at this point. I think as the domestic market improves, getting mills to continue to cut the export product and basically being able to produce the products that are standard for the export market will be among the challenges we will all face in 2013. Products for the export market are harder to make, and whether the export markets are going to be able to keep up with pricing may be a challenge. Overall we are expecting things to continue on a good path in the near future. I think the new decision point will come in 2014 and 2015 in the export market. We see the export market as improving substantially in those years, and mills will continue to want export products based on what they can get domestically will be the true decision point. • FORECASTS - Conwell Continued from page 4 For 2013, despite challenging economic conditions worldwide, SFPA aims to keep export volumes of Southern Pine lumber steady and growing. SFPA is working to expand its promotions in Central and South America. Markets in the Middle East and North Africa show promise but growth has been hampered by political turmoil in those regions. SFPAʼs team of international consultants maintains key contacts with importers and government officials around the Import/Export Wood Purchasing News world. Throughout 2012, the lumber industry experienced a global economic softening. China has been slowing down for many months. Due to credit and debt problems, volumes shipped to European markets are also down. The challenge from 2012 remains: creating export demand for SFPA member producers to help offset a soft domestic market. The Caribbean Basin region is the largest market for Southern Pine exporters, mostly for treated lumber. China has been a regular customer for treated lumber, as well, for building municipal facilities – public boardwalks and structures for the recent Olympics, among other outdoor applications. The United Kingdom has become a market for treated decking. Other European countries import high-grade boards and timbers for millwork and joinery applications. Mexico remains a market for industrial items to make pallets and crates, with some lower-grade material used for upholstered furniture framing. SFPAʼs international portal, www. SouthernPineGlobal.com, is the overseas customerʼs link to all information related to Southern Pine products. Publications are available in 10 languages. Thereʼs also a comprehensive directory of exporters on this website. SFPA provides the ability for an importer to post a purchase inquiry; SFPA services some 150 trade leads annually from importers looking for Southern Pine products in various grades and sizes. SFPA sponsors trade missions to promising regions of the world to make contacts and investigate opportunities for producers of Southern Pine and other American softwoods. SFPA exhibits at major international trade fairs and other events throughout the year to increase awareness of U.S. wood products. • FORECASTS - Boles Continued from page 4 Demand from the Middle East should improve through the winter into spring for KD lumber as "shipping dry" will most likely be down also. The export markets were better for us in 2012 than 2011. We contribute that to the stabilization of the product prices in early 2012. Looking ahead to 2013 our major concerns are stable raw materialsʼ availability and pricing. The industry in the last 3- 5 years has been devastated with the 2009 collapse and the large deviations of value from 2010-2012. The large price swings are very difficult to manage for us. Our export products are all domestic species, as we process a broad realm of species and thicknesses. This past year we found more specialty sorts have benefitted our sales than just lower pricing. We are exporting mostly to the areas of Asia/Pacific, primarily China, western Europe and the Middle Eastern countries. We are making no intentional attempts to limit our inventory. We always prefer working from a broad base, and our production methods prefer slower, nonaccelerated production, which we feel in most ways lends to offering a more stable product to our customers. We have continued to position ourselves to be as close to the markets as possible while expanding our production capacities. Shipping this past year has been the "nightmare" for us in our region. Continued container availability and price fluctuations have been impossible to predict or control – by far the most problematic issue from the production side of things. We have continued to make variety, as in colors, widths, sorts, the salvation of our company the last few years, and will continue to work to these solutions in the future for our customers, which creates a more successful Hermitage Hardwood Lumber Sales. Happy New Year and to a prosperous 2013! •
December 2012/January 2013 Page 21 FORECASTS - Herga Continued from page 4 ness mode. Our major imported hardwood products rough sawn are Sapele/African Mahogany/Utile/Jatoba/Aniegre and FSC certified hardwood decking. These species have sold well for us. We specialize in importing 100% FSC certified hardwoods from our own sawmills in the Congo basin. We are importing into the USA and Canada. We are importing from West Africa (Congo basin) Ghana, Ivory Coast and most South American countries. Shipping issues are now an everyday occurrence. Problems vary from container inspections, demurrage to freight rates, bunker surcharges and availability of containers or lack of breakbulk service. Olam Wood Products through the Olam group owns its own sawmills in West Africa that are mainly FSC certified. With the uncertainty of some supply sources, we feel that certification and responsible forest management is the only path to future success in this business. • FORECASTS - McMaster Continued from page 4 as a Challenging Global Supply causing more time and efforts to find quality and consistent suppliers. Argo Fine Imports specializes in importing hardwood plywood products from Indonesia, China, Africa, Brazil and Ecuador. Our products range from 2.7mm to 28mm for various applications throughout our country delivering to wholesale distribution, OEM manufacturers and retail. Argo has continued with our model and (inventory) stock is based on market and programs in place. Shipping continues to be a challenge based on volume availability depending on shipping methods. Increased container rates have been a problem for most of 2012. Argo now offers all products that meet Carb Phase 2 requirements as long as they are FSC certified materials. Florcore Underlayment is a domestic green product that Argo has developed to diversify in these challenging times. • FORECASTS - Carlsson Continued from page 4 Oak and Black Walnut. We expect 2012 sales to meet or exceed 2011 and 2010, although every day is a new challenge, and we are taking nothing for granted for the balance of the year or for 2013. The sawmills that we do business with continue the challenge of purchasing White Oak logs at prices that make business sense. The mills compete with export log buyers (who are not just purchasing veneer logs - but also saw logs) and stave mills. I am writing this in early November, 2012, and many mills have low log and green/air drying inventory, which will affect the availability for the balance of 2012 and for the 1st quarter of 2013. Since the global economic recession, we have had to switch our focus and attention from Spain, Italy and other European markets to the Southeast Asia and China markets. In 2012, we increased our sales dramatically into Southeast Asia with some sales into China, and project this will continue 2013 onwards. Price vs. quality continues to be the ongoing battle in these markets. The challenges continue month-tomonth to keep updated on the intermodal ocean freight rates which seem to go up much, much faster than down. 40- foot container availabilities for reasonable rates is also an issue. We are sometimes forced to use higher ocean freight rates just to get equipment. It is a moving target. I guess if exporting was easy, everyone would be doing it. We are in a global economy in challenging times, but I expect that exporting of North American hardwoods will continue to increase in 2013. The prices of the species will be subject to supply and demand. I believe that many overseas buyers do not have much on the ground inventory, so they will continue utilizing the ʻjust in timeʼ purchasing policy. To summarize everyone needs to keep a careful eye on the ball, and stay very focused. Be careful. It is a jungle out there. FORECASTS - Burnett Continued from page 4 improved prices and steady enquiries. The market has been up and down all year so we canʼt say that 2012 has been better for us than 2011. Challenges I see in 2013 include log decks remaining low and production low in the major species needed as demand begins to be steady. We export all species of domestic hardwoods and Poplar, White Oak and Basswood have been very steady. We primarily export to the UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Our inventories are limited in the items needed due to lack of production. The issues with shipping we experience result from fluctuations in ocean freight rates, high inland freight rates due to fuel surcharges and potential uncertainty about the potential Longshoremanʼs strike. • Dan Lennon Robinson Lumber New Orleans, La. Our forecast is for moderate growth based on stable exotic lumber prices, a substantial, well balanced inventory, as well as confidence about increasing activity in the home renovation market. The import market in 2012 was very similar to 2011. We had challenges with maintaining appropriate inventory levels due to both unpredictability of demand and extremely long transit times for most of our best selling imported lumber species. Freight costs continue to be a major challenge, both ocean freight and inland freight from our warehouses to our customers. We import rough lumber and solid hardwood flooring as well as some Ipe decking, Jatoba lumber and flooring. We export domestically produced hardwood and softwood lumber to several dozen countries in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. We are buying more aggressively for inventory in 2013 after having cut back each of last four years. Our biggest problem is increasingly frequent U.S. Customs and USDA intensive inspections on containers of imported wood products. You get charged by Customs or USDA for drayage to a warehouse of their choice, the inspection itself, handling and storage plus demurrage during time of inspection charged by the shipping line. They take your packages apart and you have to pay someone to recoup them. We even had one case where we had to pay over $2,000 to have some mud rinsed off the outside of the container. It was handled as hazardous waste. We continue to strive to provide any service our customers require. We ship flooring samples to endusers for our customers every day. We ship job lot quantities when needed and handle all LTL arrangements. We are providing services such as width sorting hardwood lumber as well as customizing length tallies to best suit our manufacturer customers. • Continued on page 22
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Lawrence Lumber Company Inc. - Miller Publishing Corporation

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